People Australia

Miriam Tonkin, by Jenny Scott, 2006 [detail]

Stater Library of South Australia, 78634363 62288

Miriam Tonkin, nee Brunning (1928-2025) women’s activist, Communist and pro-abortion campaigner.

Birth: 4 March 1928 at Melbourne, Victoria, daughter of native-born parents Phillip George David Brunning (1887-1950), fitter and turner, and Beatrice Lavinia May, née Stevens (1889-1966), tailoress. Marriage: 6 October 1950 at the office of the government statist, Melbourne, to Donald Geoffrey Tonkin (1926-2004), radio engineer, born at Adelaide, South Australia. They had three daughters and two sons. Death: 19 July 2025 at Adelaide. 

• Her father was gassed and badly shell shocked serving with the Australian Imperial Force in World War I. Her mother, one of the first women to join the Tailor’s Union, was one of the first women to march in the 8 hour day procession in Melbourne.
• Miriam was educated at the state public school in North Carlton, Victoria, leaving school at 13 to work for the Red Cross doing clerical work. She worked in factories then in the Communist Party of Australia’s (CPA) newspaper the Guardian.
• She joined the Eureka Youth League at 17, attended classes in Marxism and joined the CPA at 18 and worked on the Youth Voice newspaper as an unpaid organiser. When police raided the Guardian office she slipped out the back door to get their lawyer. During Menzies' campaign to ban the CPA they put out three newspapers a week. She sold the papers, did leafleting, spoke at functions every night. She left the CPA in 1956 because of events in Hungary.
• She had five children in quick succession and left the paid workforce. Moved to Adelaide in 1958. Her husband lost his job for being in the CPA. In late 1960s she became active in the Vietnam anti-war movement. In 1972 her daughters held a women’s liberation meeting at her home and she then got involved. She later attended meetings at Bloor House.
• Miriam was involved in a big campaign through Women’s Liberation to get a Women’s Studies course established at Flinders University by lobbying the University Board/Council. The course started in 1973 and they all enrolled in the course, including herself and her three daughters (Beverley, Rosemary, and Margaret). Yvonne Allen, Denise Bradley and Pan Verrall also enrolled in the first course.
• In 1972, as part of a Women’s Liberation group, she protested outside a Right to Life meeting. Right To life organisers had bussed in students from Catholic schools, many nuns and priests. She wrote a leaflet for the rally. Organised a city rally in Rundle Mall against the Abortion Law; she was the main speaker — the only time that she spoke publicly. Picketed the Queensland Tourist Bureau after Premier Bjelke Peterson banned abortions in his state. Active in pro-abortion demonstrations in 1978.
• In the 1970s she campaigned for alternative schools. In 1976 she joined the Humanist Society and was strongly involved in the pro-choice movement. The Humanists formed the Abortion Law Reform Association in 1968; she wrote a submission to the Lusher motion in federal Parliament to take abortion off Medicare subsidies; went to Members of Parliament to get them to lobby against it.
• 1974 she returned to college and became a teacher. Got involved with women’s issues and peace issues. Active in Feminist Teachers, Teachers for Peace, and was a member of South Australian Institute of Teachers Status of Women Committee. Their main effort was to get rid of sexism in education. In 1974 at Kingston College of Advanced Education she was involved in Student Union and Public Affairs Committee. In 1975 she attended the Women in Politics Conference. President Pre-school Teachers Association. In 1991 she joined the Women’s Right to Choose Coalition. She was also a member of the Pregnancy Advisory Centre Friends Group.
• Her death notice described her as a “life-long activist for social justice, feminism and the environment". 

Sources
Oral History interview by Barbara Baird, held at the State Library of South Australia; death notice, Age (Melbourne), 26 July 2025.